Chapter 719: Anticipated Conflict

Felix returned to school and took some time to find Valen who was pleasantly walking around – Felix had left her behind at school due to the serious nature of the previous conference. After not seeing each other for a while, Valen’s temperament grew even wilder.

Felix asked in a tone of prying insider information, “I heard that there is a flying Niffler roaming around the Forbidden Forest recently?”

Valen shook her head repeatedly, indicating that she had no idea of such a thing. “Really?” She patted her chest and suggested with all seriousness that he could ask Hagrid who might know.

“… There are many dangerous creatures in the Forbidden Forest.” Felix cautioned her.

Valen waved her hand carelessly.

Felix followed her line of sight to the small bell tied in her scarf and reached out a hand to get it –

“Confiscated – this is to keep you safe, not an adventure prop.” Valen could only watch blearily as Felix’s hand shook, and the pretty silver bell uncoiled and turned into a silver bird.

This is a Patronus magic specially designed by Felix. The main focus of this Patronus magic project is related to the fact that it has parts of the Mandrake’s rune circuitry hidden within it – in case of real danger, the Patronus can shout at the top of its voice to stun a few unsuspecting wizards. This trick also works on creatures in the vicinity of the Forbidden Forest.

They walked towards the castle.

“You like the Forbidden Forest? I know several particularly flavourful herbs … Professor Sprout has hidden them well.”

The next day Felix woke up to a tempting aroma of roasted pumpkin, he stood in front of the windowsill with a feeling of being in a different world. The mountains in the distance wore white and silver blankets, and the black lake at the foot of the mountains had a thin layer of ice, just waiting for a big snowfall.

He spent Halloween at the school and took time to reacquaint himself with his students. It was strange that no one distinguished him from the memory, as Felix felt that he was much more serious and attentive when giving lectures to his students.

He even attended a party hosted by Slughorn with interest, where Snape still appeared out of place, with an unapproachable aura, despite his implicit mention of the ‘tiny progress’ he had made in simple potions – Felix refrained himself from asking for details. That way the other party would have no chance to brag about it. Emmeline Vance, who showed no interest in the food at the banquet but enjoyed the classical music being played, asked Slughorn the name of the record, to which he said briskly.

“You can’t find it anywhere else, I bought it from a muggle store … Yes, it was specially processed to play using magic, I have some connections within the muggle government … I can send you a copy… …”

After Halloween, Felix realized that he still had the title of Deputy Headmaster attached to him, so he went straight to Professor McGonagall to finish his duties – and had a chat with the Sorting Hat in the process, but unfortunately, that dirty hat didn’t appreciate it, and kept yelling and screaming, classifying Felix on the list of those who it would refuse to communicate with. Felix was a little resentful. The relaxed days did not last long, the critical phase is at hand, so after a week he returned to the Confederation headquarters, which acted like a large information transceiver, constantly receiving and sending all kinds of information, and there were times when a dozen different shapes of Patronus appeared in the hall of the Confederation headquarters at the same time.

The days of intensive activity had brought very encouraging progress, and some of the countries with a faster negotiation process had already reached the final step, and the entire Confederation headquarters was revitalized. One morning, Akingbade returned from the United States with bad news.

“The situation looks a little grim.” Felix took a look at the headline, which stated in bright red letters that an Auror squad was sadly killed.

After he put down the newspaper, Akingbade briefly explained what had happened. A three-man Auror squad that was investigating the local government’s secret control of young wizards had been involved in an accident, and there were no survivors.

“There was an armed force involved?” Felix asked in surprise.

“It was wizards, another group of wizards.” Akingbade said, “It happened last night, the other squads received the final signal, but by the time they got there it was too late, and it was noticed by the reporters who were standing around the Congress …”

Half an hour later, Felix appeared in the headquarters of the Magical Congress of the United States of America – Woolworth Building.

Three bodies were laid out before him. Horace Grimsditch, the president of the MACUSA, the Headmaster of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Director of Magical Security, along with Jura his deputy, and several high-ranking officials of the Congress were all present, with very unpleasant looks on their faces.

“Any clues so far?”

“There may be other wizard organizations involved,” Horace Grimsditch said grimly, “I suspect they are descendants of the Scourers. I dispatched a large number of people around Halloween to monitor the suspicious-looking people passing by – it’s perfectly feasible in theory, many wizards would make their purchases during the holiday season, and I figured someone would take advantage of the opportunity to fish in the muddy waters …”

This is the plan he mentioned to Felix. But the plan only succeeded partially, the Aurors did find the anomaly, but they didn’t come back alive to report the situation.

Felix did not dismiss the speculation about them being ‘Scourers’. The Scourers had played the role of extremely infamous wizard traitors throughout history, similar to mercenaries who took money to do certain tasks, and at one point the American wizards treated them with disgust and hatred. When the Magical Congress of the United States of America was established, these people were immediately purged, and only a small percentage escaped punishment and were hidden within the muggle populace.

They were powerless to retaliate against the Congress, much less dare to use magic, and for this reason, they even actively abandoned their magically gifted children, and judging from subsequent developments, these people did not choose to cooperate with the government for a long time – as the former murderers who had sold out their fellow people for money to the Puritans and official radical groups, they knew too well what they would be subjected to, and their fear and hatred for the Magical Congress had been passed down from generation to generation.

So the incident with the twelve magically gifted children some time ago was really an accident. No, maybe it wasn’t an accident. Felix thought sharply, what if the last time was a probing by some people? A test for wizards and public opinion? Suppose those children had constantly been subjected to the surveillance of a small group of people, and when the time was right they would be shipped to the unmarkable sea base, as a ‘regular quota’ that would be delivered every year, only this year it was used for other purposes …

Felix carefully examined the remains of the three victims, and after a long pause, he looked up.

“I think these three Aurors came across the people we’ve been looking for, except those kids are now adults and even more importantly, they’ve become our enemies.”

This was pretty much the worst-case scenario.

“Could it be that this secret plan has been going on for decades … but even so, there’s no way they could possibly confront formally trained Aurors, and those people didn’t even receive a complete magic education.” A bearded wizard on the scene – who is the Director of Magical Security – yelled out in disbelief.

“There’s no need to get a complete ‘schooling’.” Felix corrected, “It’s true that they would have difficulty in receiving proper magical instruction, but that doesn’t mean they have to figure it out from scratch. The easiest thing to do … just by gaining the trust of any random wizard, they can enter and leave the magical world at will, and easily buy publicly published magical books and potions, and they can even buy second-hand wands at black markets …”

“As for whether or not their true level exceeds that of the Auror … I can’t discern, for the time being, there are multiple possibilities of what truly passed, such as these Aurors being careless, deceived, or really not skilled as expected, but one thing is for sure… …their opponents were not ordinary folk, but highly trained and carefully groomed professionals.”

A blurred portrait emerged from Felix’s fingertips, and he leaned in close to examine the faceless face closely and whispered.

“No magic school is built to train undercover agents, assassins, or killers – we were educated to better control magic, as well as to develop and strengthen the wizarding community or at least to avoid decline. So wizards moved from the earliest days of homeschooling and mentorship to schooling, creating communities and branching out into many professions that seem dispensable to me, all for the betterment of wizard communities. But that’s not how the antagonists hiding in the shadows think; they just want to squeeze as much as they can out of one aspect of their skills in the short term.”

“It is worth an attempt to outline the environment in which those people grew up. Disregarding the ones who died due to various accidents, they generally left their parents before the age of eleven and have been drifting at sea for years since, undergoing various experiments, brainwashing, training … and so on; when they get a little older, they come out on missions, so what are those missions?”

Horace Grimsditch felt a burst of chills, his mind worked quickly, then he suddenly turned his head to look at one person and said urgently, “Jura, immediately lead some squads to visit the common magic store to ask those shopkeepers whether they have received young wizards, their common characteristic is that they have more than once bought a variety of magic materials in bulk, and – -” he said with some difficulty: “Investigate those wizards who have lived away from the community, and find out if anyone has disappeared for unknown reasons in recent years?”

Jura’s expression turned grave as he hurriedly left.

Several people present wore different expressions and did not speak for a long time. Finally, it was the Headmaster of the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry who spoke out to break the silence: “Mr. Hap, according to this speculation, is it possible that the other party has trained powerful enough wizards?”

Felix pondered for a moment and then dismissed this possibility.

“Those people’s overall quality can more or less be at the level of an average good Auror at the limit, and they are still only comparable in one aspect, there is no possibility of going further, let alone exploring the true meaning of magic … As for the evidence, from the wounds left behind, they all casted regular spells with obvious Dark magic characteristics, this is not an indication of how profound their magical attainment is, but a reflection of magic imbalance; moreover they can’t get advanced magic knowledges that are inaccessible to the public”

“From this, we can also conclude that no matter who the other party is, the time span in which they are doing this will not be too long, definitely not more than thirty years.”

“Why are you so sure about that?”

“- Any longer than that, these people themselves will suffer a backlash, you know, the magic power of a wizard is directly connected to the soul and will directly reflect on the personalities and characters …”

After a long silence.

“What’s next?”

“The negotiations will continue as usual. I have a feeling that the next step of the negotiations will not go too smoothly, the hidden forces will try to obstruct the signing of the treaty by all means … However, someone will show up voluntarily, which will help us find the key players. In addition, I also need to create a pair of maps.”

…

The entire month of November was passed in a disturbing atmosphere. Although a dozen ministries of magic and local governments around the world who signed treaties recognized the status of the Constitution of the International Confederation of Wizards and Pan-Magical Alliance, there were many people who openly questioned the validity of this law, believing that organizations like the International Confederation of Wizards, which overruled various countries’ ministries of magic and even the will of their governments, should be illegal and deserved to be banned.

In particular, some of its clauses are simply inconvenient to the various organizations and governments of some countries.

The delegation from the Magical Congress of the United States of America held three rounds of negotiations with the local government, but as the negotiations progressed, some issues of principle surfaced and proved to be irreconcilable contradictions between the two sides, and the negotiations once again reached a deadlock. Some tough voices appeared openly in the news media: an anonymous congressman from a remote state proposed that the government should fund the establishment of a special school to create and take over the magic community of America. These remarks immediately gained the support of pharmaceutical companies and military groups, who expressed their willingness to make donations to this great cause.

But the next day the congressman cried in front of reporters about the “evil crimes” he had committed, and this almost immediately became evidence of the wizard’s ability to control people’s consciences, and a series of vicious events that had happened in the past was ‘indirectly’ linked to the wizard, and the delegation of the Magic Congress who spent most of the month negotiating, found that the public sentiment in the outside world had completely changed.

The cold reception given to the U.S. Magic Congress delegates, the boycott imposed on the International Confederation of Wizards, and the gradual spread of public opinion around the world all led to one conclusion – and this is exactly what many government think-tanks had agreed upon – that a head-on conflict would be inevitable.

In a way, it was even the outcome everyone was hoping for – provided it didn’t happen in their own country – and for many, it seemed incredible that it took so long, making one wonder if magic was at play.

A group of more than two million people hidden beneath the surface, at odds with the world order, and wielding powers that exist only in books and fairy tales … yet as of now, it is so strange that no conflict of a certain volume and scale has never been broken out as if everything was planned.

The shadow of war is never far away, initially some people in the United Kingdom began to parade, but as the situation in the United Kingdom stabilized, the eyes of the various countries turned to the most chaotic Africa, but although Africa is chaotic, skirmishes have repeatedly occurred, it has never really got out of hand, some people waited and waited, and the result of waiting arrived in the form of “Constitution of the International Confederation of Wizards and Pan-Magical Alliance”, followed by drastic dozens of countries simultaneously carrying out negotiations … how things have developed to this point is simply a wonder.

But some things can not be avoided, other means will only serve to delay and deter the inevitable, disputes that happened only on paper aren’t enough to reflect the strength of the two different communities. Only after a real battle will the darker and more fickle minds will sink back into the decaying mud and acquiesce to the birth of a new order.

What caused disagreement among the wise men of various countries was when and where the conflict would break out, who would start it, and – in the end – how many people would be killed or injured, and could it be contained within certain limits?

The bad weather of November extended into early December, and with a group of people holding their breath and waiting with bated breath, the time came to the last month of 1997, and finally, Babajide Akingbade, the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, and Felix Hap, the first President of the International Pan-Magical Alliance, issued a serious statement to all the wizards.

A stone has stirred up a thousand waves!

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